Latest news with #Duniam
Perth Now
11 hours ago
- Business
- Perth Now
‘Not good enough': Uni slide ‘disappointing'
Australian universities have fallen down the international rankings. However, the prestigious tertiary institutes still leave Australia ranked as the fifth-best nation for higher study. Released on Thursday, the QS World University Rankings show only Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland have more top-100 universities than Australia on a relative basis. The top-ranked University of Melbourne fell from 13th to 19th spot, while the University of NSW, The University of Sydney and ANU also slipped. Australia has 36 universities in the total list of 1501 THAT QS ranked this year. Nine Australian unis made the top-100, a fifth place result. federal opposition education spokesman Jonno Duniam, called a slip in the rankings a 'disappointment'. 'The government must take note of our constant slide down the rankings and implement policy and funding solutions to get our universities to where they need to be,' he said. 'It is simply not good enough.' University Rankings Analysis of the rankings show 70 per cent of Australian universities have reduced their academic staff-to-student ratio. 'We want education policies that meet the 21st century skills that our economy demands, not just funding injections from which Australian taxpayers cannot see a reasonable return on their investments – not to mention our university students who deserve better,' Mr Duniam said. The University of NSW fell from 19th to 20th spot in this year's rankings. The University of Sydney came down from 18th to 25th, and ANU slipped from 30th spot to 32nd. Monash rose one spot to 36th, and the University of Queensland fell two spots to 42nd. UWA held steady at 77th. The unopened Adelaide University debuted in the 82nd spot. The University of Technology Sydney fell from 88th to 96th. Of Australia's top 15 universities, 13 fell down this year's rankings. Dina Rudick /The Boston Globe / Getty Images Credit: Supplied The Group of Eight is a combined body representing Australia's top eight universities; chief executive Vicki Thomson said Australia punched above its weight. 'At a time when global collaboration underpinned by quality has never been more important, the ranking result for Australia and in particular the Go8 is impressive,' she said. 'This comes against a backdrop of global uncertainty and mixed messaging from our largest research partner, the United States, which threatens our very capacity to deliver on our mission of education and research. 'And yet despite these headwinds, Australia continues to punch above its weight, ranking fifth overall as the best higher education system in the world.' The strong showing was testimony to the quality of our universities and academic and research staff, Ms Thomson said. 'That we have two Go8 members ranked in the top 20 and six in the world's top 50 is an outstanding result and must not be taken for granted but rather leveraged in these contested times,' she said. 'Singularly impressive is the debut of the new Adelaide University at 82. This result confirms that Adelaide University will create quality at the scale needed to deliver far-reaching benefits for Australia's research and higher education.' Adelaide University, set to open in 2026, is an amalgamation of the University of South Australia and The University of Adelaide. Globally, MIT, Imperial College London, Stanford University, Oxford and Harvard make the top five in that order.
Perth Now
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
‘Baffles me': Anger over Rockliff vote
As Tasmania prepares to return to the polls, Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam has criticised the success of the no-confidence vote against Jeremy Rockliff on Thursday night. The state's embattled Liberal premier lost a no-confidence motion by just one vote after two days of fiery debate – a decision that ended his term as premier and toppled the minority government at 3.30pm on Thursday. Mr Rockcliff visited Lieutenant Governor Christopher Shanahan at Government House early Thursday evening to inform him that he had lost the confidence of the parliament and to seek permission to resume parliament next week to pass legislation so public servants could be paid. He has not yet stepped down as premier, with the date of an election yet to be determined. The state's embattled Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff has lost a no-confidence motion. NewsWire/ Nikki Davis-Jones Credit: News Corp Australia Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam has told ABC News he is 'angry' with the result and the decision to head back to the polls. 'Thirty-five members of the Tasmanian government in their collective wisdom to not find a way to not send Tasmanians back to an election just baffles me,' he said on Friday morning. 'The Labor Party obviously had their concerns, they told us all what they were, but the beauty of a hung parliament, which is what the Tasmanian parliament currently is, is an opposition can work with a crossbench, and indeed the government, to make change. 'No gvernment has the capacity just to ram bills through, so I don't understand why Labor, instead of putting this no-confidence motion forward and successfully so sending us to the polls, didn't just seek to amend the Bill, or do the budget bills, or something similar.' Senator Duniam said it was the responsibility of those who voted for the motion to 'go out and speak … on why they're going back to the polls'. Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam said he was 'angry' at Thursday night's outcome. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 'Dean Winter, but for his desire to be premier at any cost, did not need to send us here,' he added. 'I don't know what the Labor Party actually is going to offer at this election. 'They didn't offer an alternative budget of any substance, so what they're going to be asking Tasmanians to vote for remains a mystery.' The Liberal government will 'reflect' on the recent happenings, but Senator Duniam, who was highly critical of the party's federal campaign, believes a 'constructive approach' rather than an election was needed. 'Woe betide any political party that forgets that they need to listen to the people they seek votes from and seek to represent in parliament,' he added. 'What we (federal Liberal) did wrong was we forgot to communicate with the people of Australia and they didn't vote for us, of course. Senator Duniam, who was highly critical of the party's federal campaign, believes a 'constructive approach' rather than an election was needed. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 'There's a chance that if this election does come to pass that the Liberal Party can actually go out and make sure they are listening to the people of Tasmania and responding to their needs.' Opposition Leader Dean Winter has ruled out forming a government with the support of the Greens and the crossbench. Mr Rockcliff took the top job just 439 days ago in the election that marked the party's fourth consecutive term since gaining power at the 2014 election. Governor Barbara Baker is expected to return from overseas on the weekend before parliament resumes on Tuesday morning.
Sky News AU
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Time to reset': Coalition split one of the most ‘unfortunate weeks' in politics
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam says it's one of the most 'unfortunate' weeks in politics after the Coalition's short-lived disbandment over policy disagreements. 'It's been one of the most unfortunate weeks in politics, I can recall for a very long time,' Mr Duniam told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. 'These things are better done behind closed doors, not out on the media with a running commentary every step of the way, which has been incredibly unhelpful. 'We've let people down, it's now time to reset and get going again.'
Sky News AU
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Liberal Senator John Duniam unleashes on campaign headquarters and pollsters after Coalition's devastating loss at federal election
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam has delivered scathing criticism of the party's campaign tactics and polling after the Coalition was decimated at the federal election. The Coalition failed to win any lower house seats in Tasmania, losing the crucial marginal seats of Braddon and Bass to Labor. Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday morning, Mr Duniam slammed the 'bad campaign' being run out of Liberal headquarters as he argued 'pretty alarming signs' had been ignored about the party's chances in the state. 'We had bad pollsters giving us bad numbers, way off the mark, totally out of line with all of the published polling,' he said. 'Our own polling here in Tasmania pointed to the wipeout we ultimately got and so there are some people in our campaign headquarters who are going to have to answer some questions for us around what went wrong here.' Mr Duniam emphasised the difficult task ahead for the Liberal Party as they seek to rebuild, declaring, 'we've got to lot of work to do'. He said polling from campaign headquarters was inconsistent with the reality on the ground in Tasmania. 'The polling that was coming out of our campaign headquarters on the mainland sort of seemed to indicate we should be getting warm embraces at every polling booth we were at – we weren't,' he said. 'We had some later-on internal polling which indicated … that we were definitely going to lose lines, that were at best 50-50 in Bass and Braddon, but all of that was ignored.' He said Labor had been out on the ground, making commitments in response to community groups' demands for action on projects, while the Coalition 'sat idly by'. 'From campaign headquarters, we were told, no, there's nothing else you need to do – we're on track, things are good. 'So we were let down by pollsters and strategists, which frankly gave us a bum steer of the worst order. And now we have the result to fit those bits of bad advice.' Mr Duniam also said there was little emphasis on local issues as the Coalition sought to match Labor's national health narrative. 'Where was all the local stuff? You know, where was the urgent care clinics in the small communities?" he said. 'Where was our support for the Tassie health system? Labor did it, we didn't, we were ignored with our requests and as a result, we've lost Bass, we lost Braddon and I can't see us getting lines any time soon.' The Coalition on Saturday recorded its worst election result in more than 70 years with the Liberal Party now set to begin the process of choosing a new leader after Peter Dutton's defeat in his seat of Dickson.
Sky News AU
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Coalition unable to ‘swim against the tide' in recent federal election
Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam analyses the 'bad campaign' run by the Liberal Party which saw the Coalition defeated in Australia's federal election on Saturday. 'We couldn't swim against the tide; what went wrong is basically we had a bad campaign run out of our central campaign headquarters,' Mr Duniam told Sky News Australia. 'We had bad pollsters giving us bad numbers way off the mark, totally out of line with all of the published polling. 'There are some people in our campaign headquarters who are going to have to answer some questions for us around what went wrong here.'
